1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for smoothing gear wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the production of high-quality gear wheels, it is necessary to perform a final smoothing operation, during the course of which the roughness of the surfaces of the teeth, especially the roughness of the tooth flanks, is eliminated. This measure serves, first, to reduce the noise generated by gear transmissions and, second, to reduce wear.
The invention is based on the task of creating a new device which, while occupying only a modest amount of space, makes it possible to smooth gear wheels more efficiently than is possible according to the state of the art.
In accordance with the invention, the device for smoothing gear wheels which accomplishes this task by a loading station for supplying the gear wheels, by a smoothing station for smoothing the flanks of the teeth, by an inspection station for inspecting the degree of smoothing, and by an unloading station for carrying away the processed gear wheels, wherein the stations listed above are arranged around a rotary transport device, which conveys the gear wheels from station to station.
According to the invention, a rotary transport device advantageously integrates a smoothing station and an inspection station into a single system, which delivers smoothed gear wheels which have been checked to ensure that they have been smoothed sufficiently. In particular, this inventive solution makes it possible for gear wheels which have not been smoothed sufficiently to be left in the machining process and returned very efficiently to the smoothing station, for which purpose a control unit is provided, which, as a function of the results of the inspection, causes a gear wheel to be delivered to the unloading station or returned to the smoothing station.
The invention is based on the finding that reprocessing is often required in the course of smoothing operations and that it is therefore worth the effort to combine a smoothing station with an inspection station by using a rotary transport device to obtain a single, compact system.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the stations are arranged in the sequence indicated. In a different embodiment, the inspection station could be installed between the loading station and the smoothing station. The gear wheels which do not require smoothing would then pass through the other stations without being processed.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the smoothing station is followed by a washing station, where the smoothing aids are cleaned off the gear wheels. This washing station is especially necessary when these smoothing aids, such as drilling fluid used for smoothing, would falsify the results of the subsequent inspection in the inspection station.
This will be the case, for example, when, as in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the inspection station for inspecting the degree of smoothing functions on the basis of a noise analysis. In this noise analysis, for example, the noise which is produced when the wheel to be tested drives a testing wheel in the inspection station is evaluated. In addition to a noise analysis, the inspection device could also be based on the idea of a geometric inspection with mechanical measuring sensors or photo sensors, which scan the teeth of the gear wheel being inspected. In particular, a geometric inspection could be conducted by the single-flank and two-flank contact rolling test method.
It is advisable to provide devices for acoustically separate the inspection station from the other stations. To separate the inspection station with respect to structure-borne sound, it would be possible, for example, to use rubber bearings or other types of damping elements to support the station.
The smoothing device preferably has smoothing gear wheels which rotate around a vertical axis.
In accordance with this design of the smoothing device, the rotary transport device is advantageously provided with a rotating element, which can hold the gear wheels and rotate around a vertical axis.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the rotating element comprises gear wheel holders distributed around its circumference, the number of holders corresponding to the number of stations, where preferably the angular distance between the gear wheel holders is constant. The gear wheel holders for holding the gear wheels are provided with the rotational axis of the gear wheels in the vertical direction. It is advantageous to use radially projecting grippers as gear wheel holders. It is advisable for the rotating element which delivers the gear wheels to the stations and accepts them back from the stations to be capable of vertical displacement as a whole. With a design of this type, it is possible for a gear wheel to be supplied simultaneously to each station as the rotating element is lowered or for a gear wheel to be removed from each station as the rotating element is raised in each rotational position in which the grippers are aligned with the stations in question.
It is advisable for the inspection station to have a pneumatic mandrel for receiving the gear wheel to be inspected, the diameter of the mandrel being smaller than the diameter of the axial bore in the gear wheel to be inspected, but which mandrel can be expanded by hydraulic pressure to such an extent that it can drive the gear wheel to be tested when it is engaged with the testing gear wheel.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of the disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages, specific objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the drawing and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention.